908 14 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 With regards proposals for the 'old firm' to leave the SPL for the English/european league, there are many issues involved here, but the only one that counts is money from TV. As a Rangers fan I would like to see a move happening, as I believe it is the only way I would see my lifelong ambition of Rangers winning the European Cup, but it has to be fair. Top 2 in SPL go into British premiership, with remaining 10 going into new championship with 10 from the Football League, etc. There is no law against this, Welsh teams already play in it. Berwick Rangers play in the Scottish league (and Gretna played in the English league for years). Eventually every club would find their level. But it is a gamble. I would welcome the change, but would the modern old-firm fan enjoy watching teams capable of beating them every week? Even big English clubs are lucky if they win a trophy every 10 years (eg. Spurs). It would be a gamble. Also, in England no city these days has 2 title-chasing clubs. Liverpool are much bigger than Everton, Arsenal much more successful than Spurs, United much biggger than City (barring Arab investment) Chelsea are much bigger than West Ham. So I think one half of the old firm would grow bigger (or more successful) than the other. We would need to build a bigger stadium to compete, I think. Look at Newcastle, probably the 3rd biggest club in England, yet they haven't won anything for 40 years! The old firm's huge travelling support would dwindle faced with midweek trips to Southampton, Ipswich or even Birmingham.. though a weekend trip to Blackpool would be a laugh! There are no real barriers to this happening though, and the knock-on effect would be big Dutch teams moving to Germany, Portuguese teams moving to Spain, Belgian sides to France, Greek and Turkish teams to Italy.. so UEFA will put a stop to it. As they did with the introduction of the Champions League, I reckon they will start a Europe-wide pyramid system, which would be open to all. Based on the English model, but involving clubs from all over Europe. Football would lose some romance, kind of like a European SuperBowl, but it would be more competitive - no side has won the Champions League twice in a row, no 2 or 3 clubs would dominate the Euro-league. Rangers and celtic would probably yoyo between the top 20 division and the conference division, with relegation back to the SPL division being a possibility! But this is the only way either will ever challenge in Europe again, and I don't think it would harm the national team, as the only sensible way forward would still involve breeding their own young players. But - would you rather follow Rangers to the likes of Burnley, Birmingham and Sunderland, instead of Edinburgh, Dunfermline and Dundee? Knowing we could struggle to qualify for Europe from the English Premiership, let alone challenge to win it in the short term. Think how much more cash it would cost the fans to travel to England, yet alone the 'Atlantic' league. Indeed, a couple of years ago we played Ajax in a friendly at Ibrox, and only about 20,000 turned up. In the Europa league, celtic have struggled to half-fill their stadium. Surely winning at home, while repetitive, pulls in more punters than losing abroad would? Your thoughts please.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOAT 30,449 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Rangers football club are WINNERS, that's the difference between us, spurs, everton, aston villa and newcastle. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
j1mgg 3,766 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 I think this is the only way we can become a force to be reckoned with against the big teams in europe. People always get excited about being in the champions league and getting these teams coming to ibrox. If we were in england we would be getting this nearly 50% of our home games. Plus the money brought in would mean we would see a greater calibre of player coming to play for us and after a while i see no reason why we could start competing for europa league places and eventually CL places. There is always that thought of but what if we just become a mid/bottom half club, well ithis is the chance we would have to take and i think with the amount of fans we have it wouldnt be like this for long. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOAT 30,449 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Also I don't know how you can say newcastle are the third biggest club in England. I was lost at that part. Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, spurs and everton have all done more, a lot more, than newcastle. Newcastle are a big club in their own city. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
outlaw69uk 123 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 I guess the easy answer is, I would prefer to follow Rangers, anywhere! Simple as. With regard to all these different league options, it depends on your view, how short sighted people are, and, some are seriously short sighted. Flip it over, would you be able to accept dropping points to the likes of a Tottenham or Man City easier than dropping them to a Killie or a Falkirk? Increased competition, should lead to improvements, leading to additional finance and ability to strengthen. For the long term good of our club, moving looks the best option, however, the ideal option, is increase competition and funding into the SPL, along with making the changes to turn it into a "proper" league, with the right number of teams, and, playing each twice, however, in all honesty, I think the chances of making the SPL less of an embarrassment are lower than moving to the epl. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poetry_In_Blue 1,043 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Of course we wouldn't be winning the league every season to start with, but saying that with the investment we could generate and the better calibre of players we could attract there would be no reason why we couldn't be competing for the title and definitely competing for a top four spot and CL football. I would rather be seeing teams like Arsenal and Liverpool visiting Ibrox every season and playing them twice a season than having to play teams like St Mirren, Aberdeen etc 4 times a season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
toolongawake 1,209 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Think about it, our current debt is tiny compared to premiership clubs, and would be wiped out in no time if we were playing in the premiership. This would put us in a very very strong position to compete in the transfer market, so given a few years in that league, i think we would be winning regularly and genuinely competing at the top of the division Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johanhentze 14,323 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Think about it, our current debt is tiny compared to premiership clubs, and would be wiped out in no time if we were playing in the premiership. This would put us in a very very strong position to compete in the transfer market, so given a few years in that league, i think we would be winning regularly and genuinely competing at the top of the division I agree completely with this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaltersGotStyle 160 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 It won't happen any time soon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlCapone 7,678 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 We will never play in the EPL Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOAT 30,449 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 On the subject of premier league debts, just to give you a comparison of the debts. Rangers are between £20-30m in debt. Manchester Utd and Chelsea are £700m in debt. Arsenal are £420m in debt. Liverpool are £280m in debt. Even a smaller club like Fulham are £170m in debt. With the exception of Chelsea (who owe their money to Abramovich) the rest all owe the money to the banks, something is going to bite them on the arse one day. Can you imagine a club like Rangers with little debt, big stadium, large fanbase and hopefully an owner with a big wallet going into the cash rich premier league and competing with clubs who are deep in the red? Rangers can challenge and it would be sooner rather than later. That's why some premier league clubs fear us going down there. As for the mhanky mob, who gives a fuck what they do? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
j1mgg 3,766 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 As for the mhanky mob, who gives a fuck what they do? They could always go and join the irish league or whatever they have Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WVB 2,560 Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 I'd imagine it would feel the same as not winning it in Scotland, but without the gloating scum wandering about grinning all summer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvager 498 Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 Would obviouisly need to improve our present team or we would be getting hammered every second game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
docspiderman 1,260 Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 Would obviouisly need to improve our present team or we would be getting hammered every second game. True, and by team I hope you mean management as well because in terms of tactics,fitness, technique and ingenuity we are so far short of the standard needed to survive in that league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briton 394 Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 Rangers football club are WINNERS, that's the difference between us, spurs, everton, aston villa and newcastle. We've played them all in competitive competition. Didn't win them all though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goianegra 4,702 Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 On the subject of premier league debts, just to give you a comparison of the debts. Rangers are between £20-30m in debt. Manchester Utd and Chelsea are £700m in debt. Arsenal are £420m in debt. Liverpool are £280m in debt. Even a smaller club like Fulham are £170m in debt. With the exception of Chelsea (who owe their money to Abramovich) the rest all owe the money to the banks, something is going to bite them on the arse one day. Can you imagine a club like Rangers with little debt, big stadium, large fanbase and hopefully an owner with a big wallet going into the cash rich premier league and competing with clubs who are deep in the red? Rangers can challenge and it would be sooner rather than later. That's why some premier league clubs fear us going down there. As for the mhanky mob, who gives a fuck what they do? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamFyfe 1,438 Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 I feel after a few season we'd be up there fighting for the title with the likes Man United Chelsea so on.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amac9 2,060 Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 I feel after a few season we'd be up there fighting for the title with the likes Man United Chelsea so on.. No chance! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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